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N0KFQ > TODAY 07.10.15 15:31l 61 Lines 2626 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 69314_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 7
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JM1YTR<JE7YGF<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 151007/1426Z 69314@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.64
1871
Massive fire burns in Wisconsin
The most devastating fire in United States history is ignited in
Wisconsin on this day in 1871. Over the course of the next day,
1,200 people lost their lives and 2 billion trees were consumed
by flames. Despite the massive scale of the blaze, it was
overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire, which began the next day
about 250 miles away.
Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was a company lumber and sawmill town owned
by William Ogden that was home to what was then one of the
largest wood-products factories in the United States. The summer
of 1871 was particularly dry across the northern Midwest. Still,
settlers continued to set fires, using the "slash and burn"
method to create new farmland and, in the process, making the
risk of forest fire substantial. In fact, the month before had
seen significant fires burn from Canada to Iowa.
Peshtigo, like many Midwestern towns, was highly vulnerable to
fire. Nearly every structure in town was a timber-framed
building-prime fuel for a fire. In addition, the roads in and out
of town were covered with saw dust and a key bridge was made of
wood. This would allow a fire from outside the town to easily
spread to Peshtigo and make escaping from a fire in the town
difficult. On September 23, the town had stockpiled a large
supply of water in case a nearby fire headed in Peshtigo's
direction. Still, they were not prepared for the size and speed
of the October 7 blaze.
The blaze began at an unknown spot in the dense Wisconsin forest.
It first spread to the small village of Sugar Bush, where every
resident was killed. High winds then sent the 200-foot flames
racing northeast toward the neighboring community of Peshtigo.
Temperatures reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing trees to
literally explode in the flames.
On October 8, the fire reached Peshtigo without warning. Two
hundred people died in a single tavern. Others fled to a nearby
river, where several people died from drowning. Three people who
sought refuge in a water tank boiled to death when the fire
heated the tank. A mass grave of nearly 350 people was
established because extensive burns made it impossible to
identify the bodies.
Despite the fact that this was the worst fire in American
history, newspaper headlines on subsequent days were dominated by
the story of another devastating, though smaller, blaze: the
Great Chicago Fire. Another fire in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
that consumed 2 million acres was an even smaller footnote in the
next day's papers.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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